Bengaluru: The Karnataka government will set up a unit to bring to task any attempt at floating false narratives with the intention of stoking communal tension in the state.
The state’s IT Minister Priyank Kharge said they would soon have a “heavy fact-checking unit”. “We will ensure only the truth reaches the people and anybody indulging in fake news, creating false narratives and sowing seeds of discontentment in society will be reined in,” Kharge added.
He was speaking to reporters Monday after filing a complaint against senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders at Bengaluru’s High Grounds Police station.
The Congress and Opposition BJP have targeted each other ever since the results of the 10 May elections gave the former a clear majority.
In power, the Congress said it would review and repeal all policies enforced by the BJP, including the anti-cattle slaughter bill, anti-conversion bill and probe allegations of corruption against the party.
The communications wing of the Congress on Monday filed a complaint against BJP national IT cell chief Amit Malviya, Chandigarh party unit chief Arun Sood and national president J.P. Nadda the “dissemination of malicious, false and incendiary content targeting Indian National Congress and its senior leaders with the intention to promote enmity between groups and incite as well as provoke its viewers”.
Kharge was referring to an animated video shared by Malviya on 17 June.
The leader said: “For long, the BJP IT handles have been spewing venom, have been spreading communal disharmony, spreading false news. So it’s high time these people be reined in, including their IT head, and whatever he has put up on 17 June is highly malafide… we are going to take action against that.”
In the complaint, Kharge described the video as “a foreign voiceover outlining an anti-national objective to deter India’s ascension as a global economic powerhouse”.
“The video is created and published with the express intention to defame the INC as well as its senior leader, Shri Rahul Gandhi, and to bring ill repute by portraying the INC and as its leaders as conspirators in this destructive agenda, which is unequivocally illegal and amounts to committing offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code,” the complaint read.
The complaint added the video “employs mimicry to misrepresent” Gandhi and that the accusations are not only defamatory but also “poses a threat to national security by sowing seeds of distrust among the populace”.
Malviya could not be reached for comment and this copy will be updated when he responds.
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